My neighbour is a convicted paedophile

[Obviouslyneedtonamechange]

I've just found out from another neighbour that the man two doors down, who we chat to regularly and are friendly with, has been convicted of horrific child pornography charges. Like, the worst. It's really thrown me, I have a two year old and a four year old and I want them to be able to play in their garden without worrying about him watching or worse.
We live on a really small street which the name of was reported in the local paper so I am also a bit worried about potential vigilante type actions. I am obviously hoping he moves away (his marriage has collapsed so I'm hoping he financially has to) but no sign of that yet. Incredibly he got a suspended sentence, what a joke. Am I unreasonable to feel like I want to move?! What do I do?

I'm not a criminal lawyer, but I can see absolutely no basis on which the police can tell you not to tell people you know your neighbour has been convicted of anything, tbh. Absent some kind of special anonymity being granted to him by the court, and I'm not aware of that being a thing for adults unless in extraordinarily special circumstances, the "risk" of vigilantism is a consequence of horrible offending against children. I would not take vigilante action and I wouldn't encourage it, but telling your neighbours about it is safeguarding, not vigilantism.

Surely it’s not a crime for you to honestly inform someone that someone is a convicted paedophile? What could the police do about it if you did tell anyone?

Yep, 12 months suspended. Sickening.

Look at it this way, if you move you'll have no idea who is a paedophile or not. This way you are aware of the danger and can mitigate against it.

I'm sorry that you're going through this. A really close friend of mine has recently been convicted too. Obviously haven't spoken since. I had absolutely no idea. Worse, it was little boys, and we all knew him as a straight man (particularly his was-long-term-girlfriend). Again, a suspended sentence. It's shocking. He used to be a teacher! His road was reported in the news article. Yet I know that he's still going to places where children are (he's allowed, just not unsupervised) and as a parent it would make me feel sick if my children were there with him. It's a horrendous situation. He had to remove his social media profiles but has now made a new one under a false name. There's nothing you can do about it, sadly. Just make sure your children are fully clothed when outside (by which I mean in summer with water fights/paddling pools etc).

This is correct. It’s not an offence to pass on information that is in the public domain - for eg court records which are public, news reports . Privileged information is a different matter.

What did he do? There's a huge range here. Man who abuses children or shares child abuse images VS man who downloads regular porn through file sharing and accidentally downloads abuse images. Both would involve a prison sentence depending on the severity on the content. Dont ruin someone's life without knowing all the facts.

This. I'd do the same.
Sadly, there are too many of these monsters still unknown but at least you do know who this one is and can keep away / keep an eye on him. Get all the neighbours to do the same - one thing most people have in common is a hatred of paedos (if they don't agree, I'd keep an eye on them too).

Have you read any of the thread?

I agree that you need to have the conversation because he's bound to try to interact with you when he sees you due to you already being friendly. He needs to know that you know what he is, what he did and that he must never speak to you or your kids ever again. One conversation then act like he doesn't exist.

Don't get involved in any 'warnings' on SM. It can come back on you real quick if he gets visitors from angry locals. It's so easy to fan flames with words online.

Be ready for some people in the area to support him, though. We have a couple of wrong 'uns in our village - one professional who was struck off for physically abusing kids and another for what he was watching. Both convicted.

Their wives stayed with them, they have supporters who bought their stories and they have the gall to show their face in the pub and at events.

Everyone knows, many steer clear but not all.

You could move and then find out you have a paedo in your new street. It's that rife. Why uproot your family for someone else's crimes?

Has he served his sentence? I presume he will be on the SO Register. Would you move if a neighbour was convicted of assault/drug offences/theft/fraud? If he isn't bothering you then you can ignore him. As long as he isnt reoffending you will be fine. Pitchforks and torches are not your friends

Two doors down? How can he even see into your garden?

Just ignore, move on, don't talk to him. Tell your kids to avoid him as they grow up. At least you know about this one. Plenty more out there you won't have a clue about - likely another one in your street just hasn't been found out yet. It's rife. Old man 4 doors up from us was arrested - nicest man you could ever have spoken to. Shocking You just have no clue what people are getting up to behind closed doors. You're in shock but there's realistically nothing you can do.

Hi op we have 2 known ones where I live. I agree with other posters at least we know who they are etc. Like you said earlier you can say ' I don't want to talk to you and you know why'

I would tell him I know who you are and what you are also don't talk to me again
His card firmly marked.
End of.

I’d tell him you can’t have anything to do with him and that he knows why.

Your children are not an age where they should be outside unsupervised anyway so I’d just live normally.

He has to live somewhere. I don’t really subscribe to “he won’t offend again, as he has so much to lose”, as it didn’t stop him before. However maybe being somewhere stable, where everyone knows his history may be the safest place for children.

IMO as a parent you have to behave like any man you meet potentially could be a paedophile. I have thought through and minimised opportunities where my children could be abused. This helps me not be anxious about this and not pass my fears to my children.

Wtf. What the hell is wrong with you?
You want this poor woman who is worried for her children's safety to commit a crime that carries a possible life sentence?

At least you know who he is. What about all the pedophiles you pass every day without knowing? I think it's better to have the enemy in plain sight.

People have been murdered just for local rumours of them being paedophiles when they were not.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25139185.amp

There are people out there and very likely on this thread who think it's justified to murder a paedophile as the offenders did in this case even though they were incorrect.

And this case where a disturbed girls false allegations of CSA led to near-riots in the local community and innocent people targeted

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/proginfo/2024/03/liar-the-fake-grooming-scandal

That's why the Police don't want people going around informing their neighbours.

They will already know about the neighbour, he'll likely be assessed as low risk of contact offending and will be being monitored.

The Police will be doing their job and don't want or need local communities being whipped up into possible violence.

Edit as I'd posted the same link twice

Anyone who doubts that suspended sentences are given for searching for cat A images (penetration) should google Erxc Joyce, the partner of columnist India Knxght. She stood by him.

x-es because she has a google search on her name and is very well connected in North London circles.

Can you ask the police to check., If true, this is just awful. Makes me feel sick.

Also as I said in my original post, I'm already worried about people doing this sort of thing and getting the wrong house because the street name is in the news article 😭

Most sex crimes are reported in the local press. Unless the judge says otherwise (and they rarely do unless it risks the victim being known) then you can pass that info on.
We had someone who was involved in a sports club my family go to. Both me and DH were suspicious of this person. He would try to go into the changing rooms for example when young people were changing even though the club has strict rules against it.
It wasn't a huge surprise to see his photo shining out of the local newspaper when he was convicted of child porn offences. We shared it everywhere. Even the club shared it online. It's news and perfectly acceptable to do.

As awful as it is , and I bet he looked completely normal and never rose any somethings off about him vibes , but ,
You can't do anything about it .
Yes it's a shock , yes you are going to stop speaking to him , and possibly tell your kids he's not a nice man, but you only know he's done that because of the media , there will have been other men in your community that are doing dodgy things and maybe have seen your kids out and about but because you haven't heard / they are getting away with it etc they are not a cause of concern to you .
Just be vigilant .

Burning someone out of a house is one helluva serious crime as you rightly say.
To engage in such is nuts.